What you will need:
Battery: 11.1V ,3S 2700mAh 25C Li-polymer
Radio:2.4G (7 Tx& 8 Rx)
BEC
A separate lipo for the BEC. 1000 mAh should be fine.
A towel to wipe up the drool

This plane is a production run aircraft ready for the public. I am not sure of the release date yet or which distributors will carry this but as soon as the manufacturer lets me know I will share it with you all here. What do you say we get to the unboxing and see what mysteries the big brown box holds.

So here's how it arrived.
As you can see, double boxed and safe.

Here is the box it comes in.
There are no graphics on it yet but was told that it will have graphics.

Once the outer cardboard sleeve is removed, this is what you see.
Notice the foam wrapping and plastic packing. Looks pretty well packed so far.

Here is a shot of the fuselage of my Dynam Grand Cruiser just for scale. Pretty big huh?

After pulling off some packing tape I managed to get 1 wing free and pull it out of the plastic. The wing has its control surfaces wrapped with foam for safe keeping.

Once the foam is removed you can see that you have 2 flaps per wing and 1 aileron. Along with nav lights and landing lights.

Count'em...3 servos per wing. Also notice that all the wires are pre-plumbed for ease of building.
Oh, and the wings ARE MODULAR!!!! Woo Hoo, it will fit in your car.

So after gushing over the scale flaps and details of the wing I decided to look in the box to see what other treasures are to be found. In their own preformed pockets are the nacelles which are individually wrapped for safe keeping.

Once unwrapped this thing is almost as big around as my Wildcat. Kinda reminds me of that Burger King commercial with the small hands guy. LOL!

A shot of the bottom and of the gear door.

Looking down from the top you can see the retract and strut with a big rubber, yes rubber, wheel. Its nice and soft and feels like a low bounce wheel. The struts are aluminum and oleo. Also notice that there is a Birch plywood mount in there that the retract is mounted to. Makes it solid and light that this area is not just filled with foam. Nice weight saver.

Now opening the gear door you will see that there is not an extra servo to actuate it, nor is there any rigging. This is because the gear door is spring loaded and there is a screw on the side of the oleo strut that pushes against the door to open it and close it. Such a simple and effective design. Very impressed with this feature.

So at this point I am reaching for my towel to wipe up my drool as this is such a nice plane.

All cleaned up its off to the rudders which are also individually wrapped.

A scale note is the way in which the rudders are designed. They are offset just like the real deal and look magnificent. Lots of surface area and should prove to be very effective.

Next up is the horizontal stabilizer. This is a neat piece of engineering. Notice the Birch Plywood mounts for the servos. Strong mounting points and a weight saver as mentioned before with the nacelles.

Up close you can see the part that controls the left and right elevator.
Whats special about this is its not some connector that is holding together 2 sides. The wire is bent in a U in this section and this plastic piece is glued and screwed into place. This is a rock solid connection and solution to the split elevator situation.

Next up is the fuselage. This is the last of the big parts and holds a couple of very nice surprises. I had my wife hold it up just for size reference.

Nice new nose art. Hubba Hubba.

Nose gear installed with more Birch Plywood and an oleo strut and another rubber wheel. Gear doors working the same.

Neat surprise #2, and my personal favorite, BOMB DROPS!!!!!
With 7, count them 7 bombs. 1 servo actuation of the bomb bay doors and your arsenal is ready to punish those unfortunate enough to be in the way. HEHE

The last pic for now is of the instructions. Pretty simple. the plane can easily be built without them but the CG is listed and that is need to know info.

So that's it for now guys. There are other details that I haven't show yet. Gives me something to gush over while doing the build portion of this review. I should start the build tomorrow and have it wrapped up as soon as some parts that I ordered show up (Need a BEC).

Minimal parts with pre-ran wires all cut to length. Very well thought out.

I am going to start with the horizontal stabilizer.
The first thing I want to do is get that HS-82 in there.
After removing the original 9g servo I found that the HS-82 is a little big for the original hole.

To fix this I cut out the 1 hole facing the tail of the plane. With this open I can slide the HS-82 in place and mark for a bass wood bridge.

Once my area is marked I can cut out the foam for the new servo mount.

Always test fit and pre-drill your servo mounting hole. Also, once you run your screws in to the hole, take them back out and put a drop or 2 of CA in the hold to firm up the threads.
Let it dry before you run the screw in or you will never get it out.

Once the CA has cured, mount the servo to the bass wood.

I mixed up a little 5 min epoxy and pushed it in place. Make sure the servo lead from the rudder servo is out of the way so the HS-82 can sit all the way down.

Once dry it is time to set up the elevator. The kit comes with the EZ clips needed for this area. Once you drill out the servo arm for the EZ Clip to fit you need to make sure you use thread locker to secure it. This part glues down and you will not be able to get back in there to fix it.

The HS-82 is a little taller than the factory servo. SO to offset that I put the EZ Clip on upside down so that the control rod going to the elevator will be level.

Here is a shot of the Z-Bend in the control horn of the elevator.

Now I am going to pause here and point out a mistake I made and just realized this morning while looking at this. The EZ Clip should have gone on the control horn on the elevator!!!! This would have given me adjustments had I needed them. The Z-Bend should have gone on the Servo. Here is why I made this mistake. The HS-82, as stated earlier, is taller. To keep from binding it has to be done this way. I could have put another EZ Clip on this and that would have been the best way to do it but I had not thought of that. So if you if you swap out the servo, put on an extra EZ Clip on the Elevator control horn.

Now with that being said, it is time to move on the the vertical stabilizers.
Here you can see that I have already applied the EZ Clip and I have notched the foam. I did this to get more deflection out of the rudder when they pull to the inside. Simple little V cut and your good to go.

Next up is gluing the vertical stabilizers to the horizontal stabilizer. You will see that I cut hash marks in the foam.
Glue doesn't stick to paint all that well and its hard to get in there with a sanding device so I just gut some hash marks and called it done.

Did the same thing for the horizontal stabilizer too but I did sand the paint off of this area because it was easy enough to get to.

Mix up some 30 min epoxy and apply to both the mating surfaces.

Once done, Stick the parts together and wiggle it around a little to get the glue down in there good.

Once dry, go ahead and do the other side. When your done it will look like this.

Next up we are going to rig the rudders. In your package there is a long straight piece of piano wire. DON'T BEND THIS IN ANY WAY!

Take that wire and run it through the EZ Clip on your rudder servo. If you have not put the EZ Clip on by now, do so.

Put the wire in one rudder and have it come out the other side of the clip about 1/8" and tighten it down. (Remember your thread locker)

Repeat for the other rudder. When done, power up your radio and servo and center it. When on center tighten it down and thread lock it because you wont get back in here for adjustments here.

Next, prep your surfaces of the fuselage and the horizontal stabilizer for gluing.

Plug in your servos to the pre-ran wires. These are numbered but just to help, #2 is the elevator and #4 is the rudder.

Tape them up so they don't come apart over its tour of duty.

When done, glue them up with 30 min epoxy. The center of the glued area likes to curve away from the fuselage a little so I used lipos to weigh this area down and make sure this area gets glued together real well.

ASSEMBLY PART 2

OK so we have the tail done and its time to move on to the last part that requires gluing. But before we do that we need to look at the retracts and make sure they are sturdy. Flex them a little and make sure the wood it glued tight. One of mine was a little loose so I figured I had better give it a little epoxy love. The retracts have to come out for 2 reasons, 1. Gotta drop some CA in the screw holes for strength & 2. Don't want to accidentally drip epoxy in the retract. SO go aheat and get the 4 screws out of each one and remove the retracts.

I mixed up a little 5 min epoxy and ran a tooth pick covered in epoxy along the side of the wood where it meets the foam and tried to get a little under there for good measure. Just do the 1 side for now.

Once that side is dry, flip it over and open the gear door and get the other side. No drippy drippy this way.

Once dry and the CA you put in the screw holes is dry, put your gear back in.

Next, the nacelles only fit one way on the wing. Make sure you match them up. Once you know who is going where, rough the foam up where its going to be glued. There are a lot of contact area and some are harder to get to than others. Get the big ones and do the best that you can. The more you get the stronger the bond will be.

Once the surfaces are prepped, plug in your wires. They are all numbered so it will make things real easy.

Added some tape to keep everything in place and from pulling apart for any reason.

Mix up a good amount of 30 min epoxy. Like, don't be stingy. There is a lot to cover here and you want to be thorough. Once the glue has been applied, gently pull the wires through the wing as you put the nacelle on the wing. Once on, put some weight on the wing and let the glue dry for about an hour. It sets in 30 min but an hour it is rock solid.

Alright, it is time. Lets get these wings on.
The first thing you need to do is locate the screw that holds the carbon tube in.

Loosen that screw up and slide the carbon tube in. Loosen the screw up on the other wing too for later. Just like in the video, there will be some resistance about half way in so push past it.
Once in, tighten it down.

Slide the wing in but not all the way, just far enough to get the wires through to the other side.
Once there, match them up. They are numbered still so it should be cut and dry.

Once all connected, take the lead of each one and tape them all up into 1 bunch.

Take that bunch and put it into the hole in the top of the plane.
If you need room to move you can open the bomb bay and work through the hole in it.

Once you start feeding them in you can start moving the wings together to slack up the wires in the fuse.

Once the wires are pulled through and the wings meet in the middle, flip her over and tighten the other screw.

Next we are going to hook up the ailerons and flaps. You should have a baggie with 6 control rods in 3 sizes.

The shortest is for the ailerons but its a little long. I went to cut mine down and rebend but they are brittle and broke real easily. No problem, I have tons of spare control rods and clevises so I just cut down a set I had and I was back in business.

The other 2 sizes stage out respectively and are made from a sterner piano wire so they did not need replacing nor did they need to be cut down. I also added some fuel tubing over the clevises. Cheap insurance.

Now if you remember in the video I pointed out that the nose gear door goes in just a tad too far when the gear is retracted. Well I can't have that. I just cut down a toothpick and used some foam safe CA and BLAM! Gear door is perfect.

Next up is getting the props together and on. You have counter rotating props so do one bag at a time so you don't get the blades mixed up.

The hub half that has the 3 holes in it is the back half. Make sure the decals on the props are facing forward as pictured.

Put the other half on and it should sandwich together.

You should have 3 long screws and some locking nuts. The locking nuts go on the back so you don't have these long screws pointing forward.

If you have not put the cowl on yet do so. They just push on. I may go back and put a drop of foam safe CA in a couple of keep places but these things stay on pretty tight.

The Port motor turns to the left from Top Dead Center (TDC) and the Starboard turns right from TDC. Put the props on respectively and tighten down the prop nut.

You should have one last baggie with 11 guns in it. Use a drill to pre bore the holes and then push them in place.

That is it. Check your CG and set your throws to what your comfortable with. The instructions do not come with suggested travel so what I will do is once the plane has flown and I have it set to where I am comfortable I will include my travel, dual rates and expo settings so you will have a good starting point.

A couple of things to mention now that the build is done.

1) The props are huge. With the plane sitting on the carpet the props strike the ground. As of right now this is not a grass field plane. The mains are 2.5" wheels and the nose is a 2" wheel. A taller wheel may be needed to give the props some clearance but a new wire will have to be bent to give room for it on the strut and I may need to research the clearance inside the gear bay. Radio is dead from a day of testing so that will happen tomorrow.

2) When the prop strikes the ground, the yellow paint will disappear. I am repainting my tips now.

3) To hit the 75mm CG from the leading edge you will need the lipo to sit over the steering servo on that foam hump before going down to the bommb bay. I put my 3000 mAh lipo in the nose and it was way nose heavy.

The landing was tough. I had wind gusts lifting the plane and I had to use some power to get through it but this worked against me because when I did touch I bounced and the wind just blew me right off the runway. Any, no damage and will have a more calm day in the near future.

I did have to fly and mostly full throttle for the flight. The winds were not being kind to me and I had to power through them. I could easily get a 6 min flight on a calmer day where I can be a bit more conservative with the throttle. The plane flew great despite the wind and I only have a couple of areas of concern.

One area is the gear doors. They blow open in the wind. Makes for an interesting flight but s couple of rare earth magnets should solve that with no problem.

The other area of concern is the prop clearance. The plane sitting in my carpet the props would strike the carpet. A rock would ruin the props. SO I added 3" wheels to the mains and lengthened the nose strut. I lengthened it a bit too far but that is an easy fix. A complete conclusion is to come.

Honestly, I was contacted about 3 weeks ago from the manufacturer. They said that they have been watching me interact with people and do my thing for a while now and like what they have seen. I was surprised and honored. They want to get their name out and wanted me to help them do that so here we are. Guess it goes to show that there are always people watching.

You deserve it my friend for all the help you have given us and I am looking forward to your review for this airplane looks like something I may have to save my dollars for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orion Pax

Honestly, I was contacted about 3 weeks ago from the manufacturer. They said that they have been watching me interact with people and do my thing for a while now and like what they have seen. I was surprised and honored. They want to get their name out and wanted me to help them do that so here we are. Guess it goes to show that there are always people watching.

Congrats on the new build Pax. I am interested to see how this one flys for you. I know you specialize in electric dual engine a/c. Hoping your maiden goes well and perhaps you could bring it over in a week or so for our fly-in in a couple of weeks. Good luck.
PS. I plan on calling you repetedly tonight to disrupt your build... HEHE!
Your pal, Tuk151

You deserve it my friend for all the help you have given us and I am looking forward to your review for this airplane looks like something I may have to save my dollars for.

Thank you. It is a big plane and its been almost 2 years since I had a B-25 in my hanger and I am anxious to get this one up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tuk151

Congrats on the new build Pax. I am interested to see how this one flys for you. I know you specialize in electric dual engine a/c. Hoping your maiden goes well and perhaps you could bring it over in a week or so for our fly-in in a couple of weeks. Good luck.
PS. I plan on calling you repetedly tonight to disrupt your build... HEHE!
Your pal, Tuk151

Hey Tuk,
If the weather is nice I will probably be maidening it there with you. It looks like rain through next Thursday for me here but you never know what the weekend will bring.

Orion,
I can't think of anyone better for this project. You have all of us warbird guys hanging with great anticipation. I have over a dozen flights now on my HK B-17 and I'm really enjoying it. This would make a great companion although the quality of this B-25 looks far superior. I think there will be a long line of pilots wanting this plane.

There is an arm coming off the oleo strut that pushes against the gear door to open it. It has a screw on the end to adjust out if you want the door to open more. I may bust my build into 2 nights and shoot some video of the components functioning.

Orion,
I can't think of anyone better for this project. You have all of us warbird guys hanging with great anticipation. I have over a dozen flights now on my HK B-17 and I'm really enjoying it. This would make a great companion although the quality of this B-25 looks far superior. I think there will be a long line of pilots wanting this plane.